Eagles Parade Recap (Also the NBA Trade Deadline and the Flyers won today as well)

If you didn’t see Jason Kelce’s speech at the parade today, it encapsulates everything we have felt as Eagles fans since Chip Kelly got run out of town in December 2015. This pack of underdogs means everything to Philadelphia and today was the perfect way to celebrate them.

Coming into the day, most people feared how they would get into town if they weren’t already–the chaos was already brewing. The fact that people were already lined up before the sun I’m sure didn’t help that.

I myself live in what I deemed the “combat zone” mainly so I could sing Billy Joel’s You May Be Right in my head but point being, I didn’t have too far of a walk over to the general area of the parade route on the Ben Franklin Parkway. We ventured over to 20th and Vine around 10 am, an hour before the Eagles would leave the Sports Complex, and it was BUMPIN’

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From there, we watched as fans tried to climb signs and jamming along to the stellar playlist of 90s hip-hop with some Meek Mill thrown in for good measure. By the time the Eagles’ busses drove by, the crowd was primed for some Chase Utley in 2008-type speeches. The Eagles, once again, did not fail us there.

Owner Jeffrey Lurie stepped up, followed by Head Coach Doug Pederson, then GM Howie Roseman and then the player-speeches began. Nick Foles, Carson Wentz, Jason Pieters, Chris Maragos, Alshon Jeffrey, Brandon Graham, Chris Long and Lane Johnson in a combo speech, but finally, the man who quoted Rocky Balboa after the Super Bowl stepped up to the mic: Center Jason Kelce.

If you haven’t watched the above video, go watch it now. Incredible, right? Everything he said is absolutely true. We as Philadelphians ran hungry for a football championship for 57 years–nearly 10 years since our major sports title (2008 Phillies) which came 25 years after the second-most previous one (1983 Sixers). We’ve been dumped on because of throwing snowballs at Santa, somehow more than SF Giant fans stabbing and killing a Dodger fan, and I’m sure that dude eating horse shit is another arrow in the quiver for the Philly haters. We don’t goddamn care anymore. WE WON THE SUPER BOWL. Technically, the 5th city to win the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, and NBA Finals–LA is included there even though their Super Bowl came when the Rams played in St. Louis.

As we move on to the offseason, Howie is going to have his hands full with figuring out the salary cap and, of course, the NFL Draft itself. If you have any worries about how that will shake out, just look at what he has done since he came back a changed man in December 2015.

The Flyers won a thrilling game tonight over the Montreal Canadiens in one of the lighter home crowds I can remember–I wonder why? After a scoreless first, the two teams traded goals in the second to be tied up at 2 aside. Two quick Flyer goals would put them up 4-2 in the 3rd until the Habs pulled their goalie and scored with about 3 minutes left. An impressive Ivan Provorov full-ice heave would trickle into the empty and seal the deal.

The Flyers power play once again looked rather powerless. The guys try for these perfect cross-ice patterns but hold the puck too long for the defense to collapse and make a shot futile. SHOOT IT QUICKER. Furthermore, their neutral zone breakout tries to go for these back-passing into an isolated rush which is incredibly risky as shown tonight with Voracek mishandling the puck and Artturi Lehkonen going down and sniping off a breakaway. Travis Konecny once again looked incredibly impressive netting two–the second being an absolute hustle play, something everyone can appreciate.

NBA Trade Deadline

Admittedly, I didn’t pay too much attention to the Trade Deadline because of the parade and then the Flyers game but I definitely can’t just ignore it. Here are some quick thoughts, however basic they may be:

The Cavs really pulled zero punches in revamping the lineup. Statistically, they should look better but that’s not saying much

I’m a little shocked Tyreke Evans didn’t move but it seemed like Memphis was asking for too much in return

Today was a HUGE day for three-team deals

The Olympics also started tonight with some figure skating. Opening Ceremony is Friday night. USA all the way baby.